The hope is that Sanford has a better statistical season than last year. If he can put numbers like 2019-20, that'd be great but it would require to play him with some of our best forwards as he was with O'Reilly and Perron...
It's like we're gambling that we could get a better pick than the 4th we'll have to give to St. Louis (unless Brown really booms but that won't be easy as they have a very deep forward group, one of the deepest in the NHL). It's very possible that Brown ends up somewhere where there is more opportunity. Maybe the Blues just wanted to get rid of Sanford's salary and get that pick... so again we're paying to help a team shed some salary cap